“Becoming the Arizona Coyotes makes sense for us since we play our games in Glendale and the city is such a great partner of ours," team president Anthony LeBlanc said. "We also want to be recognized as not just the hockey team for Glendale or Phoenix, but the team for the entire state of Arizona and the Southwest. We hope that the name ‘Arizona’ will encourage more fans from all over the state, not just the valley, to embrace and support our team.”

This is all a byproduct of the endless, contentious, still-controversial sale of the team and subsequent arena deal, which was finalized in July after Glendale, despite serious financial problems of its own, approved a $15 million annual payment to the new owners for managing Jobing.com Arena. The approval was as much about the arena district as the team itself.

In the months since, IceArizona has made serious efforts to market the franchise and has downplayed an out clause that would allow them to move the team after five years if they lose more than $50 million. That'd necessitate another name change, unless Seattle has coyotes, too.